Vancouver indie-rockers The Zolas were in Ottawa last week to play two frosh shows at Algonquin College and Carleton University.

Ahead of their co-headlining set at Carleton’s Frosh Week closing ceremonies, lead singer Zach Gray and drummer Cody Hiles caught up with The Charlatan to talk about what they’ve been up to recently.

Lead singer Cody Hiles rocking the crowd during the frosh concert. [Photo by Jeff Pelletier]
The Charlatan (TC): How would you best describe the change you’ve had as a band?

Zach Gray (ZG): There are all of these influences that the three of us love forever. Previously, I just feel like we never let ourselves crystallize as that kind of band. All the bands that we grew up loving, I kind of feel like that kind of music wasn’t in style for the last little while, and it kind of still might not be in style, but we just love making this so much. We’re basically making Brit-pop, which no one is doing, so we’re kind of alone on a clifftop, just jamming.

Cody Hiles (CH): It came a lot from just hanging out and listening to music … We always knew we had a lot in common as far as bands we liked and stuff, and it was just like we could make music like this.

TC: You mentioned Brit-pop, can you tell me about who some of those influences are?

ZG: Yeah, I mean there’s classic influences like Oasis, The Verve, and Blur. To me, the English sound of the 90s is what I mean. There’s those classic Brit-pop bands and there’s those electronic groups like Underworld, and Portishead, and The Prodigy, and Gorillaz, which came later. I was listening to Ash recently, which I really like. We just listen to a lot of Brit-pop, and a lot of trip hop, and a lot of acid house. That’s the combination that gets us hard.

The Zolas keyboard player Tom Dozbranski [Photo by Jeff Pelletier]
TC: You guys come here very often. What’s it like to be back this week?

CH: It smells like back-to-school. It’s fall, and there’s that eagerness in people’s eyes, they’re ready to just forget about summertime, they’re bummed about going back to work, but the kids going back to school are stoked, and they have new clothes, usually. It’s nice to be back in Ottawa, though.

TC: What are your favourite things about being back here in Ottawa?

CH: Reliving the memory of playing a really bad show before a Redblacks game and watching a disgusting wing eating contest.

ZG: We got offered tickets to watch the Redblacks if we played beforehand, so we said yes, and it was one of those shows where literally no one was listening to you, and the people that could hear you wished you weren’t playing.

CH: One of the few people sitting there, his back was deliberately facing us. He was drinking a $15 Bud Light tall can, and he was just like, “You’re ruining my afternoon!”

ZG: Yeah, a lot of resentment there, but the game was fun!

TC: How do you enjoy university and college crowds?

The Zolas Drummer Zack Gray during a concert for Carleton Students. [Photo by: Jeff Pelletier]
CH: They seem to cut loose. It doesn’t necessarily make it a Zolas show, but as long as people have a good time, maybe you can turn heads. It has a different vibe because people are there to forget that they’re going to be going to school and just get hammered. But it’s dry here, which sucks.

TC: What have you guys been working on lately?

ZG: We’ve been recording pretty consistently. We have well over an album’s worth of material, and some of that’s going to start coming out soon. I also feel we have so much more music in us. Whenever we get together, there’s always new ideas, so we can continue recording until the cows come home. At some point, we have to release an album.

TC: What else is next for you guys?

ZG: I’m keen to just release music and tour the world.

TC: Any spots in particular?

ZG: West coast of the States is a lot of fun, and I personally could tour forever in Europe. The drives are small as long as you do it right, every country is different, and it’s a lot of fun. Europe is great, but you’re not in control of where your music blows up, so if our music blows up in Indonesia, that’s where we’ll end up going. And that happens sometimes.

TC: Anything else you want to add? Any fun stories you want to share?

ZG: Historically, every time that we play a gig in Ottawa, I tweet out at Justin Trudeau to get him on the guest list and have him come, and specifically I want him to throw a frisbee with me in front of Parliament. But then, I got so bummed about the electoral reform thing that I stopped doing it. Now I’m conflicted because I’m still bummed about electoral reform, but I don’t wish him ill. I feel like we can probably throw a frisbee again. I know he can throw a frisbee as well as I can, and it would just be a lot of fun to chuck some hammers. We’ll have to see.

Feature image by Jeff Pelletier.

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